The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure
The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, is a 1994 animated film directed by Roy Allen Smith, is the first of many animated sequels to the film The Land Before Time. It was released six years after the original. The tone, action and plot of the film was made much softer and slower than that of the original, in order to appeal to a younger audience. After the release of this sequel, all the films in the series have been released at a rate of one film every one or two years. Plot As the opening song of the film (Peaceful Valley) indicates, Littlefoot and company's arrival to the Great Valley is a relatively recent occurrence. The children are living happily in their new home, under their families' watchful eyes. When the gang tries to get to the sheltering grass to play, but land in the sinking sand surrounding it, the grownups come and save them and chastise them for disobeying them, then lecture them that night. Cera then tells the others that they need to prove they are independent by running away for a while into the Mysterious Beyond, a location just outside the valley. Before they leave, they notice two egg nappers stealing an egg from Ducky's nest. They chase them into the Beyond, during which a landslide occurs. The egg rolls safely back to the nest, but the five are under the impression that it was destroyed in the landslide. This upsets Ducky until she notices what looks like the egg, only slightly larger.The gang "return" this egg to the Valley, only to find out that the stolen egg and this one are not the same. They decide to hatch it, nonetheless, until the egg hatches, revealing a baby sharptooth. While the others run away, Littlefoot quickly realizes that he is not yet dangerous and tries to raise the hatchling on leaves; though this fails, the hatchling, whom Littlefoot names "Chomper", becomes content with a diet of insects. When he hears the others calling for help, as the egg nappers Ozzy and Strut are attacking them, he runs to their aid, while "Chomper" follows him. Chomper's shadow frightens the villains away, after which Littlefoot exchanges introductions between Chomper and the others. They accept him, until he bites Cera by instinct. He is told this is considered bad behaviour in the Great Valley, and runs off. When the others follow him, they find him chasing insects on top of the Smoking Mountain, all afraid the little sharptooth could fall into the crater of the volcano.Ozzy and Strut attack the children again, but Chomper once more comes to the rescue, biting onto Strut's tail. At that moment, the volcano erupts, lava slowly oozing in the children's path. Littlefoot pushes a tree over a canyon, to make a bridge for the others, though Ozzy and Strut fall into the canyon. Once across, they find two adult Sharpteeth on the other side. They escape them, and make it back to their families. After fighting the Sharpteeth off, the adults inquire how they entered the valley, to which the children confess over their adventure the night before, and the landslide which resulted. The adults set off to block the new entrance to the valley, and tell the children to stay behind. Littlefoot runs off to find Chomper, but is chased by one of the Sharpteeth. When trapped in a rotting log, they are approached by the sharpteeth. Then, Chomper calls to them, and they recognize him as their son. They then leave with him. Littlefoot, while out of the log, gets captured by Strut and Ozzy who survived the fall. Chomper hears Littlefoot screaming, and he goes to save him. Then Chomper's parents chase the egg nappers into the Mysterious Beyond again, and Littlefoot and Chomper say their final goodbyes. Littlefoot returns to the other plant-eaters. Littlefoot's grandfather tells him from then on, he should stay close to the herd. Then, he helps in knocking down some more rocks to seal up the entrance between the Great Valley and the Mysterious Beyond. Littlefoot then realizes that being young is not so bad after all, but decides he still looks forward to growing up. Cast *Scott McAfee - Littlefoot *Candace Hutson - Cera *Heather Hogan - Ducky *Jeff Bennett - Petrie / Frank Oz - Ozzy *Rob Paulsen - Spike / Jim Henson - Strut / Frank Welker - Chomper *Kenneth Mars - Grandpa Longneck *Linda Gary - Grandma Longneck *Tress MacNeille - Petrie's Mother / Ducky's Mother / Maiasaura *John Ingle / Madeline Kahn - Narrator / John Ingle - Cera's father Songs and Soundtrack The songs are written by The Roches. This was the film that introduced the musical element into the series and it has consistently remained ever since. This was also the first time Spike "sings"; his lips can be seen moving during "You're One of Us Now".*Peaceful Valley - Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Petrie (Scott McAfee, Candace Hutson, Heather Hogan and Jeff Bennett) *Eggs - Ozzy and Strut (Jeff Bennett and Rob Paulsen) *You're One of Us Now - Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike and Petrie (Scott McAfee, Candace Hutson, Heather Hogan, Rob Paulsen and Jeff Bennett) *Peaceful Valley (reprise) - Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Petrie (Scott McAfee, Candace Hutson, Heather Hogan and Jeff Bennett) Also, even though the film features an original score by Michael Tavera, it contains musical cues from James Horner's score of the original film. Home video release Story *December 13, 1994 (VHS - Timmy The Tooth Video Collection Promo and laserdisc) *May 13, 1997 (VHS - The Land Before Time VHS Collection Promo, Hercules And Xena The Animated Movie The Animated Movie The Battle For Mount Olympus Preview, The Chipmunk Adventure Preview and An American Tail 3 The Treasure Of Manhattan Island Previews and laserdisc - The Land Before Time Collection Promo) *December 1, 1998 (VHS - The Land Before Time VHS Collection Promo and laserdisc, the last laserdisc release - Universal Family Features Promo) *December 4, 2001 (VHS - The Magic School Bus VHS Promo) *December 10, 2002 (DVD) *December 2, 2003 (VHS - Disney Previews Prmo and DVD - 4 Movie Dino Pack (Volume 1) and 9 Movie Dino Pack) *February 1, 2005 (DVD - 2 Great Movies Featuring Chomper) Category:Movies Category:The Land Before Time Series